Anyone but You (2023) * *

 

Directed by:  Will Gluck

Starring:  Glen Powell, Sydney Sweeney, Dermot Mulroney, Rachel Griffiths, Darren Barnet, Alexandra Shipp, Charlee Fraser, Hadley Robinson, Bryan Brown, Joe Davidson

Anyone but You is a romantic comedy by the numbers.  Sometimes, the predictability of romantic comedies can be a positive.  Yes, Anyone but You hits all of the marks one would expect from such a movie.  It isn't terrible, but doesn't transcend into anything great either.  Its leads are appealing, and the rest of the cast puts forth the required energy, but the tension between them is contrived at best and silly at worst.  Like Much Ado about Nothing, from which Anyone but You was inspired, the two spend a bulk of the movie in cutesy-bickering mode before falling in love.   

We meet Ben (Powell) and Bea (Sweeney) as Bea arrives at a crowded coffee shop asking to use the bathroom.  The cashier says she has to be a customer to use the restroom.   Ben orders something for Bea pretending that Bea is his wife and a grateful Bea, after using the restroom of course and soaking herself accidentally with water, accompanies Ben on a walk which turns into a date.   Ben takes her back to his place where Bea spends the night in Ben's arms sleeping on the couch.  Bea awakens, gets scared, and flees the apartment.  She then decides to turn around, but by then, Ben's buddy has dropped by and Ben tells him how Bea flew the coop.  Bea overhears this, is hurt, and then flees again.  

Some time later, Ben is invited to Bea's sister's destination wedding in Australia.  Bea's parents (Mulroney and Griffiths) live there and spend a fortune on family gatherings and yacht trips to the Sydney Harbor.   Ben's ex-girlfriend is there, as is Bea's ex, so they agree to pretend to be lovers so Ben will appear desirable to his ex and Bea's ex will take a hint that she's moved on.  I don't even need to recap what happens next.

Anyone but You gives it the college try.   It's not anything memorable, but if you want to kill ninety minutes or so it isn't the worst time.  This is the type of movie where Bea and Ben fall from the yacht into the Sydney Harbor, spend time clinging to a buoy and conversing awaiting rescue, and no one from the family seems to have noticed.